Photographer #396: Stéphane Remael

Stéphane Remael, 1971, France, is a socially engaged documentary photographer and photojournalist who also concentrates on portraiture. He was a co-founder and member of the Oeil Public Agency between 1996 and 2008. His main focus lies with the human condition, placing mankind in his environment, often those on the margins of society. He has traveled the world to cover humanistic stories from Bolivia, Georgia, China, Nepal to Morocco amongst other places. In Japan he took a close look at an ancient phenomenon called 'evaporation'. After the financial bubble burst in the 90's entire families made suicide pacts and other men who lost their jobs decided to disappear and continue living with a new identity. In Georgia he focused on a remote region in the country called Svaneti. In this region one woman in three is abducted with disasterous outcomes for the women. They are considered impure and have little hope for leading a normal life. His work has been published in numerous French and international newspapers and magazines as Newsweek, TIME and The Wall Street Journal. He is a member of the M.Y.O.P agency. The following images come from the series The Disappeared, Kidnapped for Life and Cabanisation: What is left when you have nothing?

Website: www.stephaneremael.com

Photographer #395: Henrik Isaksson Garnell

Henrik Isaksson Garnell, 1987, Sweden, is a young, unconventional and experimental photographer. For his series Un-plugged 2.0 he worked as a sculptor. He combined items we can find in nature with technology. Bones, moose teeth, plants and other organic objects are put together with wires, lights and other man-made objects. Once the new life forms were finished he photographed the creatures using a large-format camera against a black background. The aesthetic images are haunting and resemble creatures formed by a scientist who might not be from this planet. Henrik uses various forms of sculpture-making aswell as a large array of techniques in photography. In recent years he has exhibited his work at various venues in Stockholm, but also in several other European cities. The following images come from the series Un-plugged 2.0, Ápsis and Fetus.

Website: www.henrikisaksson.se

Photographer #394: Jan Banning

Jan Banning, 1954, The Netherlands, was born from Dutch-East-Indies immigrant parents. He studied Social and Economic History at the University of Nijmegen. His work is a mixture of photojournalism, documentary and fine-art photography. He has released an impressive amount of photography books. His most recent monograph is Comfort Women, a series of portraits of Indonesian women who were victims of forced sexual labor during the second World War. During the war the Japanese military set up a system for sex slavery, forcing women into prostitution in military brothels. Most of the women suffered physical and emotional consequences ever since. In 2008 he introduced the book Bureaucratics, showing offices of members of the executive in various services and levels. The offices have been photographed in eight different countries on five different continents. The project was done with a writer; Will Tinnemans. As they would come by unannounced, Will would interview the employees, keeping them from tidying up the office. For the book Traces of War: Survivors of the Burma and Sumatra Railways he portrayed Dutch and Indonesian men who all worked as forced labor for the Japanese during World War II. They had to build the Burma or Sumatra railroads in miserable conditions leading to the death of many of them. The following images come from the series Comfort Women, Bureaucratics and Traces of War: Survivors of the Burma and Sumatra Railways.

Website: www.janbanning.com

Photographer #393: Marco Vernaschi

Marco Vernaschi, 1973, Italy, is a photojournalist with a very distinct signature. He has covered various intense stories around the globe. Child Sacrifice deals with the fraudulent phenomenon of child witches, organ trafficking and child sacrifice. The motive for the killing, mutilation and torture of these children however is merely economical. In Guinea Bissau he focused on narco trafficking and the criminal networks. Latin American drug cartels and the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah use the region for illegal trade of cocaine, oil and human trafficking amongst other things. This has resulted in organized crime, prostitution, an aids epidemic and the assasination of its president, army chief and two leading politicians. One of his latest bodies of work is Placebo, which is an inward journey of Marco himself. It focuses on sex, death and his own sexual-related experiences. It is a conceptual project in which he has tried to understand his life better and to heal from his scars and memories. The images are a combination of direct experiences, visions and fragments of dreams. It is a strong, direct and intense project that includes a poetic layer. The following images come from the series Placebo, Child Sacrifice and West Africa's New Achilles' Heel.

Website: www.marcovernaschi.com

Photographer #392: Zhang Jingna

Zhang Jingna aka Zemotion, 1988, Singapore, is a very young and productive fashion photographer currently based in Los Angeles. She started photographing while studying fashion and posted her pictures on Deviantart which quickly lead to millions of views. Very soon she would be shooting for Mercedes Benz Taiwan at the age of 20 years old with Ogilvy & Mather. Since then she has worked for brands as Montblanc, Lancôme, Elle and Canon and became a regular contributor for Harper's Bazaar Singapore. In 2008 she released her first book entitled Something Beautiful. Her work is stylish, classy and very mature for her young age. Besides photography she has been a very succesful at shooting air rifles, even broke the national record and joined the national team, winning several prizes. The following images come from various personal, fashion and commercial shoots.

Website: www.zhangjingna.com

Dahl Family | OC Family Photographer

Meet the Dahl family! I photographed their little girl Charlotte when she was a newborn...and boy, how time flies! She's a big 2 year old now, AND a big sister! (Click HERE to see her newborn images) We ended up changing our location at the last minute because of a big music festival going on at Central Park...and so I am thankful they were flexible! I loved the little area we found, and the light was lovely...I hope to go back there again soon! Here's a peek at our session...

Photographer #391: Munem Wasif

Munem Wasif, 1983, Bangladesh, is a socially engaged photojournalist who graduated from Pathshala, South Asian Media Academy. His photographic career started as a feature photographer for the Daily Star. In 2007 Munem was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass and later won the PrixPictet commission to document a water project in Bangladesh. This resulted in the series Salty Tears showing how the salt water invades the lands bringing not only destruction, but also leading to a lack of drinking water. The project was released as a book in 2011. Wasif has focused on subjects dealing with climate change and its devastating results, economic problems within Bangladesh, political refugees from Myanmar, political and ethnic crisis in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and the subject of religion, especially the Islam. In 2008 his book Bangladesh, Standing on the Edge was released. The following images come from the stories Tale of Lost Paradise: Climate Refugees, Bangladesh, Salty Tears and Rohingya Refugees: Illegal Immigrants from Myanmar.

Website: www.munemwasif.com & www.agencevu.com